$17,000,000 Erroneously Sent To 9,238 Americans As Bank Glitch Derails State’s Payroll Process

A payroll glitch at a US bank has led to thousands of state employees being paid twice their normal salaries.

A total of 9,238 employees of the government of South Dakota received double payments last month after a glitch at First Premier Bank, the financial institution contracted to perform payroll processing for the state, reports the CBS-affiliated news station KELO.

South Dakota’s State Auditor Rich Sattgast says more than 10,000 erroneous deposits have been made.

“[The glitch] affected 9,238 employees, which affected 12,136 deposits as many employees have their pay going to more than one bank account.”

The payroll hitch reportedly happened when one of First Premier Bank’s vendors was running tests on the payment services software.

Keloland cites South Dakota’s state treasurer, saying,

“A vendor who processes ACH [Automated Clearing House] transactions for First PREMIER Bank performed a backup and recovery test, which resulted in a duplicate file posting. This impacted many banks across the country.”

Efforts to reverse the erroneous transactions that resulted in the duplicate salaries started soon after the errors were discovered.